Last Chance
by Roque Amadi
Summary: Obi-Wan rescues a young woman from the desert. Post-RoTS. Obi/OC.
1. Chapter 1

"…hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

She squeezed, but she was surprised how difficult it was. Her body was almost unresponsive.

The sky above her blurred and shifted; sound came and went. Eventually she became aware that she was being carried.

"…not safe overnight – though by the looks of you, you've been lost for more than one day…"

It was later; the sun was gone, but the heat remained. Her face felt like lava.

"Rest easy… no rush."

She fell back into darkness.

Obi-Wan was surprised to find that once the sunburn faded and the bulk of sand brushed away, his ward was actually an attractive young woman with black hair and full lips. She came close to consciousness a few times during the night, but never broke through.

She was a difficult patient. Even while unconscious, she would flinch away at any touch, and the first time he tried to reach to her through her Force, he was repelled with such potency that he toppled backwards off his stool and hit the ground. The repulsion felt dark, but he didn't sense the dark side around her presently – it was as though she had crawled through darkness to get to him, and it clung to her like oil.

He treated her obvious wounds first, but after the first day he noticed the sand still trapped under her tattered clothes was irritating her – a rash was developing under her collar. So, resolutely, he drew a bath from the salty spring his hovel was built around and started to peel the rags off her.

"I'm not a pervert," he promised her. "I won't even look, except for…" he trailed off as he removed her shirt and found something extremely odd. A device, the size of a comlink, was attached to her sternum, but it wasn't like any legitimate medical or cyborg device; the claws at its edges dug through the skin into bone viciously, and the skin around it was bright red with oncoming infection. He made quick work of it with his lightsaber, and as soon as it was removed, he felt the dark side recede slightly from her aura.

He treated the open wound the device had left, but found it almost impossible to ignore what was on either side of it.

'Not being a pervert, not being a pervert,' he repeated to himself like a mantra until he had feverishly splashed enough water over her to remove the worst of the sand and then applied bacta to the variety of wounds all over her body, particularly her back. He wasn't certain, but at a guess he'd say some of them came from a laserwhip. His suspicion that she was an escaped slave grew stronger.

Finally, he dressed her in his spare underclothes of soft white cotton - a long sleeved shirt, and shorts. Both were too large, but better than nothing.

It was as he was eating his breakfast the next morning that he heard movement from the bedroom for the first time. He heard a thump and got to his feet, and approached the open doorway cautiously.

"Hello?" he asked hesitantly, as he peered into the room and saw the bed empty. He stepped inside, then felt air whip past behind him as her white-clad figure dashed out the door.

"Wait!" Obi-Wan called, turning to run after her. She was out the front door with blinding speed. "I'm not going to hurt you!" he followed her into the bright sunlight. She was running barefoot across the burning sand, but as she glanced back at him over her shoulder, she tripped, and sprawled face-first.

Obi-Wan caught up with her before she could get to her feet. "Wait – please, wait," he grasped her wrist, and she tried to squirm away frantically. He was dismayed by the look of terror in her eyes.

"I am not going to hurt you, I promise - but the desert will, if you go running out there unprepared again."

The girl gave up trying to tug free of his grip, and slumped on the ground. He let go, and stepped back, folding his arms awkwardly. "You don't have to do anything you don't want, but I suggest you come back inside and have some water." He hesitated, peering down at her. "Er - do you speak basic?"

She looked up at him with a resigned expression that made him feel like a jailer. "Yes," she said hoarsely, her first word to him. He nodded hesitantly, then watched in confusion as her expression changed – she frowned, looking at his face closely, and jumped to her feet, stepping slightly closer to him.

Obi-Wan stood his ground under her scrutiny. "What is it?"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi. I found you." She looked like she didn't quite believe what she was saying.

His real name alarmed him. It had been over a year since he'd heard it out loud. He covered his feelings with a small smile. "Strictly speaking, I think I found you," he said lightly. "Were you looking for me?"

Confusion came over her face, and she put a hand to her head, distraught. "I… I can't remember." Her grasp for memory suddenly shot across to him in the Force and he felt the dark side rear, then fade again. He was no longer convinced she was anything as simple as an escaped slave.

"It's alright," he said, attempting to soothe her. "Come inside."

She followed him back into the hovel where he poured a cup of water and set it on the bench for her to take, wary that passing it to her might cause their fingers to touch. She drank it down quickly and he poured another.

"I found you two days ago, unconscious out in the dunes. It looked like you'd been through some trouble. I apologise for your clothes, but I had to remove them to treat your wounds. Some were getting infected."

At this, she suddenly dropped the cup on the floor and grasped a hand to her chest frantically. She tugged out the collar of her shirt and looked down at the place where the device had been, which now had only his neat bandage. "Where is it?" she asked hoarsely.

Obi-Wan pointed behind her to the small table in the main room. The device sat in two parts, seared through the middle by his lightsaber. He had been planning on examining it.

She looked at it closely, but deliberately didn't touch it. "It's… destroyed?"

"I believe so. What is it?"

"It's…" she struggled, and her hands came up to her head again. "It's something bad – you have to get it away from here. Far away."

"Why?"

She shook her head vigorously, her fingers tangling in the hair over her temples. "Take it to the spaceport. Put it on a ship. Get it off-planet." She stepped back across to him, closer than she'd come before. "Please."

Obi-Wan didn't know why, but he trusted her eyes. The device was evil, and he had never seen anything like it before. He nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

They started out across the desert towards Mos Eisley. It would be a long walk.

Obi-Wan glanced across at the girl, now clad in a mishmash of his too-large clothes and her old tattered ones, admiring the fact that she hadn't complained once of the pain he knew she must feel from her wounds. She had even demanded she carry an equal share of supplies in a second backpack, which he knew must be irritating the abrasions on her back.

"What's your name?" he asked gently.

She looked across at him despondently and shook her head. "I can't remember."

* * *

This story jumped into my head overnight without any warning. Please let me know what you think of it, and if it's worth continuing. Any readers coming here from my story The New Jedi Order will know that I specialise in Obi/damaged-OC, but I think this OC will be an especially tough nut for him to crack :)


	2. Chapter 2

Obi-Wan had decided to call her 'Raven', for her black hair. She didn't really understand why she needed a proper name; there was only the two of them at the moment. But he seemed to think it was important.

They were approaching a large, shoe-shaped formation of rocks when he asked if she'd like to stop. He had asked a lot of times already, but he didn't seem tired at all, so she wasn't sure why he kept asking.

"I don't mind," Raven replied, just as she had the previous times. She watched his face as a faint frown creased his forehead, and then transferred to his eyes as he smiled. "Well, we've been walking for quite a while, and I'm hungry."

They stopped in the shade on the left side of the rocks. The sun would set before much longer. Raven crouched on the ground and watched as he sat and unpacked food from his bag. He glanced up at her. "Relax," he said mildly. "We can afford to take a little time to eat."

She frowned. "I am relaxed," she pointed out.

"That doesn't look like a comfortable position," Obi-Wan replied.

"It's safe. I can get to my feet faster this way."

He just shrugged and unfolded the paper wrapping. "Are you hungry? There is a choice – dried fruit and crackers, or dried fruit and crackers."

Raven tilted her head at his confusing use of words, and then realised belatedly it must have been a joke. "Oh," she finally commented with a lame forced chuckle, and her cheeks reddened slightly. She hadn't expected him to make a joke. In fact, she hadn't expected him to do almost anything he'd done so far. His concern for her well-being made her quite confused.

He laid out the small meal without comment. After a moment, her stomach growled, and he looked up, smiling.

"Sounds like you are hungry."

She put a hand to her stomach. "I guess so… I hadn't noticed. We were trained not to notice."

"Where was that?" he asked lightly, pushing the case of crackers towards her.

"At the Academy," Raven replied, and then three things happened very quickly.

There was a loud noise from Obi-Wan's open bag and Raven grabbed her head between her hands, in the process knocking the food across the ground. Her vision evaporated into white straight away and something was pulsing in her head, and it overtook everything else, consuming the whole world, until she even forgot to breathe. The pulse turned into a voice, which peaked, and then finally started to fade away.

An indeterminate time later, she was coming round – the sky was starting to darken, and she could see one star to the left of Obi-Wan's face, which was leaning over her.

"Welcome back," he said gently, but concern still crinkled his forehead. It took her a few moments to remember where she was.

"What happened – are you alright?" she asked hoarsely as she sat up.

Obi-Wan smiled softly. "Yes, I'm fine. It only affected you."

She followed his gaze down to a clutter of singed metal on the ground – the device was now in four parts instead of two.

"Somehow it repaired itself," he explained, picking up one of the sections to examine it. "I couldn't tell you how it managed that. But it seems that it caused you to black out. Did you see anything? Perhaps a vision…?"

Raven closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to remember. "There was a voice…" she said haltingly, isolating the flash of memory and focussing on it. Her effort made her head hurt. "I can't remember what it said… I can't quite…"

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder; he quickly withdrew it. "It's alright," Obi-Wan said. "Don't try to force it. You may just cause damage."

"Okay…"

"Now, you must be very hungry." He was reaching for the case of supplies, but she stopped him.

"It's alright, I'll eat while we walk. We've paused for too long."

They set off after storing the four parts of the device in four separate sections of their bags. Darkness set in and the temperature dropped, but Raven could soon see a glow on the horizon; they were almost there.

"I feel sort of the same as when I had the accident," Raven suddenly said into the darkness. It had jumped into her mind like a ship arriving from hyperspace. Something about the city lights ahead of them and the darkness behind them; she'd not planned on saying anything out aloud. She frowned at herself. Something about him made it easy to talk.

"What sort of accident?" he asked.

"It was when I was fourteen. I had a brain injury… I had to learn to talk again." She saw his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"It must have been very serious."

Raven didn't reply. She was trying to remember things – anything. Of course she remembered the accident (it was difficult to forget) but her life before that was hazy, and afterwards she knew she was at the Academy, but she couldn't bring to mind anything she had done there, or anyone she knew. Her thoughts carried her all the way across the last stretch of their journey, and Obi-Wan didn't interrupt them. They arrived at the outskirts of the city. It was late. Slowly, she stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. Something was pulling at her, something sad, but she pushed it away.

"Thank you for escorting me," she said. "I'll take the device, and try to put the pieces on different ships, or maybe export containers. That way it will be separated…"

She trailed off. He didn't need to know that much detail. He was probably anxious to start his journey home.

He adjusted his backpack, and looked a little uncomfortable. Perhaps he was going to ask her for payment.

"Raven," he started, running a thumb and finger over his mustache. "I will leave you alone if that's what you wish, but I said I would help you. Besides, you might faint again."

Raven took a moment to process what he'd said. He wanted to help her. She blinked a few times as the smallest amount of moisture pricked at her eyes. She couldn't remember anyone ever wanting to help her before. She met his eyes, and he smiled, and she found herself smiling back.

"Thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

He paused, his eyebrows tilting back in the slightest show of surprise. "You have a lovely smile," he said earnestly, which caused heat to collect in her ears. "And it's just Obi-Wan. Come along, then."

Raven followed him through the maze of buildings, towards the spaceport. They stayed mostly in the shadows and avoided busier roads. He led her through the back door of a large warehouse, using the Force to open the lock. Inside there were rows and rows of supply crates in different sizes, labelled based on their destination. Obi-Wan found a box destined for a core trading post that was not yet sealed. He took out one quarter of the device and shoved it deep inside the layers of packages inside. Raven located two other appropriate containers – one heading to Nal Hutta, another to Malastare.

With the last piece they continued down the aisle of large containers, looking for a different destination. Finally, they found a huge shipping container as big as a house that contained raw materials heading for Nubia and the NDC. Raven hovered at the entrance while Obi-Wan disappeared inside, picking his way around the variety of smaller containers.

Suddenly, all the lights inside the warehouse flared to life. A roller door at the far end started to rise and she could hear voices. Then everything was drowned out by the sound of a large starship approaching at low altitude. The warehouse was about to receive a delivery.

She ducked inside the container and stood still in the shadows as the voices came nearer. They were clearly workers. They started at the end of the row – they were sealing the crates that were still open.

"We'd better get out of here if we don't want a free trip to Nubia," Obi-Wan's voice sounded in her ear without warning. She repressed the urge to jerk away, but it still made her shiver in a way that wasn't quite unpleasant.

She nodded. "I'll distract them – you run for it."

"How will you distract them?"

Raven stepped over to the entrance and peered carefully around the corner. The workers were perhaps thirty metres away down the row, and they had just finished sealing a large crate. Closing her eyes, she focussed hard, and suddenly the lid of the crate popped off again, bolts flying everywhere and pinging on the ground.

"How did you do that?" Obi-Wan asked, his voice for the first time hinting at shock.

Raven just shook her head. She couldn't really explain anyway. "Come on, hurry."

They darted out of the container and down the row, jumping across into the next one out of sight as soon as they could. They hurried back across to the back door. They didn't encounter anyone else. Obi-Wan had his hand on the doorhandle and she thought they were free, when it opened, and a huge Quarren security guard turned around to face them, mildly surprised.

His surprise didn't slow him down at all. He reached forward, grabbed Obi-Wan by the head, and threw him out into the street where he impacted against a solid wall and crumpled. Raven cried out, and quickly ducked the grasp of his other arm and rolled past him through the doorway. She got back on her feet and faced him as he growled and charged at her. She jumped aside, faster than he could see, and then struck at his head with two fingers extended. They touched him on the temple, and he dropped to the ground.

She didn't spare any thought on quite how she had done that. It had felt as natural as breathing. She turned back to Obi-Wan, and her heart faltered.

He lay in an awkward position on the ground. His breathing was laboured. He was losing consciousness already. Pushing aside her own issues with human contact, she knelt down and put one hand to his arm and felt information flow through her. His ribs were broken. His left hip was dislocated. Worst of all: his spine was damaged.

He lay on his side, almost face down, and she could see the spot where his back didn't look like it should. One part of her despaired immediately while another felt entirely calm and put both hands over the awkward angle. She let the more confident part take over.

Apparently, she knew how to deal with this situation.

She focused on healing energy, and as she did, she felt sections of memory fall back to her so completely that it was strange to think they'd ever been lost. After the accident she was an orphan, but she had been taken in and trained at the Academy of Healing on her homeplanet. Because of her talent, she reached the advanced levels quickly. After that it was blurry, but it was enough to assure her now that she knew how to channel energy into these injuries and try to prevent them from killing him.

She narrowed her eyes and honed her focus to an edge. She would do more than _try_; this man had helped her, had saved her from the desert and that strange device, and above all, had been kind to her. For the first time in perhaps her whole life she felt like she mattered to someone. She was _not_ going to let him go just yet.

She hoped.

* * *

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it so far! Review if you did! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Part of her – the part that actually responded to her brain's directions – was ready to panic and cry, fall into a blubbering heap. But she didn't. She handed over control to the part of her that knew what to do without thinking, and remained like a passenger in her own body, watching as she kneeled beside Obi-Wan in the alley behind the warehouse, focusing her mind squarely into his injuries – the most critical first. The aim at this point, she gathered, was to keep him alive long enough for her to move him somewhere safer.

Her regular mind would have had some serious problems with carrying him – too much contact. But the strong and self-assured woman who had taken her over didn't think much of it. She hoisted him over her shoulders, eliciting a groan.

"Sorry about this," she muttered to the unconscious man. "But it's more dangerous to stay here."

That Quarren would surely soon have friends coming by to check on him, and she had no confidence in her ability to pull amazing combat skills out of her arse again.

She carried him further into the city, watching, listening, feeling for empty spaces within buildings. One of the small houses she passed by in the dark seemed to be empty… unused… abandoned. She stopped at the front door, wondering how to get in. She eased Obi-Wan down and sat him against the wall.

Glancing up and down the street, she was confident no one was watching. She tested the strength of the door, and it rattled. Two steps back, then she charged forward with a kick, aimed precisely at the handle. The door burst open, with very little visible damage.

"Nice," she said out loud, looking briefly around the inside. Just as she'd sensed, it was furnished, but abandoned. Perhaps a stop-over for a pilot or businessman, but whoever they were, they hadn't been here in many months.

She dragged Obi-Wan inside and shut the door carefully so that it wouldn't look tampered with from the outside.

He groaned again as she lifted him onto the small bed in the back corner. It was beneath a window, and shafts of moonlight fell across his face as lifted his legs up and laid them flat. His eyes were closed, his breathing laboured, and his hair was all messed up. Though urgency was tapping at the back of her mind, telling her she needed to get on with healing him _now_, she took a moment to reach over and brush the hair out of his face. Being close to him like this made her skin feel warm, but in a way that was quite different to how the sun's heat had beat down on it earlier today. She pushed the thoughts aside, and put her hands over his chest, focussing inwards. First priority: spine.

It was almost twenty-four hours later when he stirred, which she'd expected. She'd already been out, while he was sleeping. Conveniently, she had been able to access her personal credit account from a terminal in one of the bigger marketplaces during the day. She hadn't even known she had a personal credit account. She'd withdrawn all of it and gone straight away to buy medical supplies and drugs, and still had enough afterwards to purchase a speeder. As soon as he was able to be moved, she wanted to take him home. The city made her uneasy, and walking through the streets during the day brought her into contact with currents of dark energy, warning her that it wasn't safe here.

She'd put a drip in his arm to keep him from becoming dehydrated, something which was always a danger in this environment, and that was the first thing he noticed. His opposite arm came up to the crook of his elbow, searching for the foreign object. She moved across to him, stilling his hand gently, and as she leaned across him to place it back by his side, his eyes opened, striking blue. And somehow, for a few seconds, they paralysed her.

"…Hi," she said, as she recovered. She blinked a few times, attempting to free herself from that strange feeling. "Er…" She supposed she should say something to reassure him, show some good bedside manner, but beneath that gaze, gradually clearing, she couldn't think of anything. So she just trailed off, her eyes dropping to his arm again. She set to work removing the drip, conscious of those eyes still following her, even though she couldn't see them.

"What happened?" he asked huskily.

"You got bashed. I fixed you. You'll probably need some time to recover fully, though."

He put a hand to his forehead, and rubbed his eyes. "I feel like I've been steamrolled," he said, which made her giggle.

"Yeah. Here –painkillers."

He started to get up onto one elbow, but the movement made him groan, collapsing back down, clutching one arm across his chest.

Raven moved closer and slid a hand under his head, lifting it for him. The contact made her a little nervous. The strong, capable woman who had taken over her body last night was mostly gone now, and though she didn't mind touching him so much when he was unconscious, now he was awake, and it was different.

She passed him the pills and then held a cup of water to his mouth as he swallowed them. The small amount of movement drained him, and he lay for a few minutes in silence, his eyes closed.

Eventually, he turned his head, looking over his surroundings. "Where are we?" He spoke quietly.

"It's an abandoned house."

"An abandoned house with a vast supply of medical equipment."

"Oh – no. I bought that stuff."

He raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"I found an account in my name, so I withdrew the money. It wasn't traceable. I also bought a speeder so I can take you home - later tonight, perhaps, if you're feeling strong enough."

"You…" he trailed off, regarding her with confusion, all the bass dropping out of his voice. "Was there a lot of money?"

"Well, enough for that stuff. There's not much left now." She shrugged.

She watched as his chest rose and fell, and he struggled to respond. She was becoming concerned that his lung might be about to collapse again, when he spoke. "I…" he trailed off. "You spent all your money on… on me?"

Raven frowned. "Why do you ask that?"

He looked quite distressed, though she didn't know why. He looked down at the floor. "I can't pay you back," he said softly.

"I wouldn't accept it if you could," she shrugged, then scowled at him. "Would you rather I had left you to die?"

"No."

"Then don't complain." Raven got to her feet and pulled her hair back into a tail in preparation for a venture outside into the wind. "I need to go out and check the speeder has enough fuel. You should try to sit up. I think we should leave soon. I have a bad feeling about this city…"

She could feel his eyes on her back. "What sort of feeling?" he asked quietly.

She turned to face him. "I don't know. Just a feeling... This place is unlucky."

Obi-Wan's expression remained neutral, except that a small crease appeared between his eyebrows. "Yes," he said eventually. "I agree. We should leave." He started to get to his elbows, wincing in pain.

"I'll just check the speeder."

Raven stepped outside into the twilight. It was windy, sand blew into her face straight away, but there was no storm coming: she'd seen a weather radar in town. So, she put an arm up in front of her eyes and walked around the side of the small hovel, where the narrow speeder bike was parked. The seat was just long enough to fit the both of them. If she'd had more money, she would have got one with a roof, or at least a windshield. The vendor had thrown in a pair of goggles when she'd mentioned it, and she supposed they would do.

She swung her leg over, and the controls felt self-explanatory to her. Perhaps she'd ridden one in the past; it was possible. She ran her eyes over the gauges below the handlebars, and saw that the fuel tank was half full. It would be enough.

Sitting back, she paused, listening. She thought she'd heard something out of place, but then, it was difficult to hear anything over the wind at the moment. She looked around. Behind her, the small space between their hovel and the next was empty. She climbed off the speeder and went back out into the road. Visibility was limited, and it faded to brown in either direction, but as far as she could see, she was alone. Still, a feeling niggled in the back of her mind. It was telling her to be alert.

She went back to the speeder, double checked it was locked, then turned back toward the front door. As she stepped around the corner, she froze. Someone was leaning against the wall, right in front of her, blocking her path to the door.

He flashed white teeth in a mirthless grin, a fringe of dark hair flopping over dark eyes set in a darker face. "What's up, Eris," he said in a deep voice. "Long time no see."

* * *

Please let me know what you think! Also, I'd love to hear people's opinions on who/what they think Raven really is. I'm trying hard to make it mysterious!

Thanks for reading :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Raven put a hand out to the wall to steady herself. She was 90% sure she didn't recognise this man, or that name, but she had that feeling of oncoming memory, like fingers crawling up her spine. He stepped closer to her, and she moved backwards automatically. He reeked of danger.

"What's wrong?" he grinned. "Don't remember me?"

Raven swallowed, trying to maintain control of herself. She couldn't afford to go into another fainting fit like before. "Sorry," she said quietly. "You've mistaken me for someone else."

He frowned at her, impatiently. "Shit, you're far gone this time. Come on Eris, cut the crap. It's me, Drake." He clicked his fingers in her face sharply. She stepped backwards again, blinking quickly. Something was making her eyes water, and it wasn't the sand. The feeling built up while the man stood there grinning unpleasantly, and within the space of five seconds it felt like something in her head was splitting open, and she clapped her hands to her forehead, doubling over.

The man was speaking… Or perhaps he was laughing. Her eyes closed, and opened… squinting through her eyelids, everything was suddenly inverted, and she realised she was on the ground. The man leaned down to speak loudly right into her ear, the sound piercing her brain.

"The Chief says you've got a week. Don't-"

He cut off. His eyes rolled back. He fell sideways. Obi-Wan stood behind him, holding the hilt of his weapon, the bottom edge slightly bloodied from where it had struck the back of the man's head. He watched long enough to make sure Drake was out cold, then hurried over to where she lay.

"Raven…" he breathed. He didn't touch her, but she could feel his energy swirling around her, testing, carefully brushing past her own energy. "Something has happened," he said in a soft voice, lowering his head right to the sand so he could see into her eyes. "What did he do? Did he touch you?"

"He said he knew me. He called me… Eris. Something about… a Chief …" she groaned, covering her head with both her arms. "My head…"

"Raven," he said, "I'm sorry, I know you don't like it, but I need to touch you. We have to get out of here now. Whoever this man is, he's not alone."

He didn't wait for her reply. He grasped her under the arms and pulled her to her feet. One hand around her waist tightly, he manoeuvred her the few steps to the speeder and lifted her on. He swung his leg over the seat behind her and powered it up. The little bike hummed to life, and he grasped the handlebars, wedging her in between his arms. She could feel danger descending on them like a bird of prey, brushing at their heels as he put his foot down and they sped away. Down the street, around a few corners, then it was the outskirts of the city, then they were clear of it. Obi-Wan accelerated hard, and she was pushed back against his chest.

The darkness swirled around her, she felt her vision darkening, her consciousness fading, but it didn't quite penetrate. Obi-Wan surrounded her, and he was so bright that the darkness couldn't get through. The further away they got from the city, the less the black tendrils pressed at her. Soon, they faded enough for her to come back into her body. She opened her eyes, and immediately squeezed them shut as sand flew into them. She brought her hands up to her eyes and rubbed furiously, as they started to tear up.

"Are you alright?" His voice was right in her ear, deep enough that she felt it against her back, against his chest.

She nodded, becoming aware of all the places they were touching. It wasn't just her back – her hips were wedged between his thighs, and his biceps pressed against her arms. Her first reaction, as always, was that she wanted to move, but there was nowhere to go. After the initial shock, however, she found that it wasn't as bad as she'd expected. The night air whipping at them was cold, but he was warm. She liked it how solid he was. And, above all, there was the fact that he had somehow saved her again. She wasn't sure what it was that had chased them out of the city, and she didn't know how he'd been able to shield her from it, but there was no doubt that it was gone now. It wasn't just his body that had been a barrier to whatever was trying to get her, it was also something about his essence, his energy, his signature in her mind. It burned brightly, and it was more powerful than the creeping darkness. It was swamping her own murky, unstable presence, and she liked how it felt as darkness dripped away from her, like sunlight banishing the water from drying clothes.

She turned her head to the right, and felt his moustache tickle her ear.

"How far?" she asked, her voice snatched away in the wind.

"We'll be home soon," he said, rumbling through her back again. She _liked_ that feeling – she wanted him to keep talking, so she could feel the rumble of his chest, the movement of his mouth against her ear. She wanted it in a way that she didn't understand, a way that came from her chest and not her head.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"A little tired," he replied. "I think my injuries were more severe than I first realised… How did you heal them so well?"

"Not that well," she corrected. "Only enough for you to walk by yourself."

"In less than a day, and after spinal damage?" He hesitated. "Did you take me to a surgeon?"

"No."

"Did you operate _yourself_?"

"No," she giggled at the note of concern in his voice. "I just… I don't know. I just fixed it. I used my energy."

Obi-Wan was silent for a long time. They were approaching the large rocky formation that held his home. He turned the speeder towards the East, circling around to the rough road cut through the rocks. Finally, he spoke again. "Raven… You knew my name when we met. But do you know who I am?"

She frowned, but was reluctant to push her memory at all after she'd come so close to losing it all completely.

"You're my friend," she said. "That's all I know."

"I'm a Jedi Knight," he said, although it sounded like he struggled to say it.  
Raven was drawing a blank. "A what?"

"I was a member of an order of peacekeepers, dedicated to the Republic. We…" he broke off, and she felt him inhale before continuing. "We drew our power from the Force, which is the energy that binds the world together. I think that's what you mean, when you talk about energy."

"The 'Force'?" Raven crinkled her nose, then shrugged. "Alright. What does it matter what it's called?"

He chuckled, reverberating deeply into her back, and slowed the speeder as they approached his home, pulling up right outside.

"It matters because it's a very rare gift, to be able to manipulate it at all. And the extent of control that you seem to have, well… that's extraordinary."

"I know. I mean, that's why I was chosen for the Academy. But there were lots of others there with much more talent than me."

He slid off the seat behind her and then offered his hand to help her down. Automatically, she put her arm around his waist as they walked up to the front door. He was moving very slowly. She wished she could take more of his pain away, wished she could do everything to help this man who had now saved her life three times, but she was exhausted too. Her healing energy – or Force, as he'd called it – was completely drained.

"You need to lie down," she commented, concerned, and he raised an eyebrow.

"You were unconscious more recently than I."

"Irrelevant."

They went through the front door, and found the place exactly as they had left it. Raven helped him into the bedroom, tugging the blankets back before he sat down, trying to minimise his movements.

He toed his boots off, and she fished in her inner pocket for the painkillers, passing him another dose.

"Thank you," he said quietly as he took them, and their fingers touched, and again she felt hot in a way that had nothing to do with the desert, and again she was conscious of his eyes, watching her intensely. She wanted to stay with him, hold him tightly while he slept, but instead she backed up, suddenly awkward. Thoughts like that were inappropriate.

"Well, I'll let you rest, then."

She turned to go, but he spoke again. "I don't want to press your memory too much, but you don't happen to remember what planet the Academy was on, do you?"

"Of course," she said, pausing in the doorway to look back at him. "It was Korriban."

* * *

Hope you liked this chapter!  
I've noticed there are a lot of people who have favourited/followed but not reviewed - if you have the time I'd really appreciate hearing what you think! :)


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